


The Final Illusion

by Pinx_B



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Blood and Violence, Dark, Dialogue Light, F/F, Heavy Angst, War, Yuri
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 12:39:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13295082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pinx_B/pseuds/Pinx_B
Summary: The barrier protecting Gensokyo is ripped apart after being discovered leading to a full out war between them & the Outside World.Okina and Kasen are missing.Reimu is dead.Yukari is dying.With little chance of anyone surviving, will she watch the end arrive for a land that once resided blissfully incognito...





	The Final Illusion

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

"Udongein! Clear the nearest bed now!". 

The lunarian quickly shot up from amending a silver bullet ridden Kagerou as Sakuya and Tewi took over patching her up. 

The makeshift hospital that was left within the crumbling building of Eientei went eerily quiet despite the noise of explosions and gunfire surrounding them. A scatter of footsteps echoed around the space as panicked words were exchanged by those that followed Eirin in. 

All eyes, of both patients and helpers zoomed on Eirin who was carrying a barely conscious Yukari in her arms. 

A trail of blood was dribbling down her open stomach, her legs ending at the knees where they'd been blown off. 

The youkai's rescue efforts to save Ran, Remilia and Seiga had failed as she was bombarded with various bombs, shells and explosives from the humans that had raged war in Gensokyo for the last day and night. The three had perished instantly, Remilia decapitated, Ran mutilated and Seiga shot to death with automatic machine guns. 

Humans truly were disgusting. 

Their deaths were only a few to name as most of the residents had been slain since the unexpected ambush that occurred in the early morning, during the witching hour. It was so unexpected that even the great sages were hidden away from any details of the ambush. 

Nobody could be sure how long the elite of the Outside World had known about Gensokyo but whatever it was, it was more than enough to prepare the annihilation of every individual that resided there. 

Human or not, _everyone_ was a target. 

There were to be no survivors as the existence of Gensokyo was a threat to the elite's power. To make sure of this, the attack was as silent as the dead of night; right up until the first cluster bombs rained down as hundreds of army jets, bombers and helicopters ripped through the Hakurei Barrier. 

Hell had been flipped over as a battleground became of the land. 

And Yukari could not do anything about it. 

 

"Yukari! Stay with me!" Eirin yelled out as the youkai's violet eyes were barely a crack open, "Please!". 

Her hands were working swiftly to stitch the blonde's torn skin together as Reisen and Tojiko worked on sealing her legs to stop the bleeding and infections.

With those wounds, anyone else would've been dead. 

Yukari was extremely powerful and healed quickly. All Eirin had to do was see to the wounds and help her lover's body regenerate that much more quicker. However, the sheer ammunition used against her showed that the Outside World assailants knew _who_ she was and where she stood in Gensokyo's hierarchy. 

They wanted her dead right there and then. 

The most likely scenario was that Kasen had died with Reimu when the shrine was set alight with gasoline and littered with sarin gas and explosives. Okina wouldn't have had a chance to react either, both Satono and Mai shredded apart by shrapnel. That left Yukari as the only sage to try and protect Gensokyo as the truth to Kasen and Okina's demise couldn't be verified so easily. 

Either way, Yukari held the pressure to keep both the barrier from collapsing completely and gapping from place to place saving as many individuals as she could. 

"Yukari, answer me!". 

Her head bobbed side to side as her eyes flickered open more at hearing the lunarian's voice. She could feel every tear and hole in her skin yet she managed to put it to the back of her mind. Instead, her senses followed the voice of the woman she loved back to the brink of reality. A reality where Eirin was alive and couldn't die. She didn't want the woman to suffer any longer, she wanted Eirin safe and away from the land's inevitable demise. 

"E-irin..".

"Hey" she gasped out and moved her face near the blonde's, "I'm right here, I promise". 

"G-go..".

A gurgle of blood trickled down the youkai's mouth but it didn't stop her as she grabbed Eirin's face, her bloodied hands smearing onto the lunarian's pale cheeks, "Get out of here..please! T-take anyone alive and go..". 

" _You_ are alive and I am getting you out of here, do you understand?" Eirin replied with nothing but determination in her tone as her hands gripped Yukari's arms, "I need you to focus on healing, darling, please do that for me and I will take care of the rest". 

Yukari shook her head and kept her hands on Eirin's face. It wouldn't do, Eirin and everyone else had to leave now. 

She had a feeling that the worst was yet to come. 

"Eirin!" she tried to yell though the failure of oxygen getting to her lungs made it impossible. 

She lurched up and tried to intake air, which Eirin then intervened to help by closing her mouth over her distressed lover's and breathing air into her lungs. 

 _"Breath, Yukari!"_ she pleaded internally. 

Slowly and steadily, Eirin continued this till the blonde stabilised and she lowered her back onto the table. 

She wasn't healing as quickly as she hoped and she could see how even breathing caused an insurmountable level of pain. Eirin instructed Reisen to amp up the pain relief she had hooked up via the IV line but it would require a lot. Yukari would be going into a state of shock soon if Eirin didn't calm her down quickly. 

All the other helpers had to go back to their patients under Eirin's glance over the room, a bomb being dropped too close to where they were resonating throughout. Everything clattered and items fell off the tables whilst patients were pressed down to ease the after shock of the attacks. 

 

Most of Gensokyo's force had been killed with only a few still leading the fight against the armies of the Outside World. Yukari was not supposed to be out there on the battlefield but she couldn't sit back as the group of many different species she was sworn to protect were picked off like bugs. 

As Eirin tried to bring Yukari back to her, all of what she had seen whirled in her mind. 

The bloodshed. 

The scattered bodies. 

The obliterated buildings. 

The cries of help. 

The eyes of madness on the enemy. 

All of it was engraved into her head, what was left of it. 

She watched as families were blown up in front of each other in the Human Village. Children crying out to their parents, youkai trying to save them and being killed in line. The elderly were trampled and shot on the spot, women and men screamed in horror as legions of the enemy used all sorts of Outside World weaponry on them and those that did fight back; were brutally executed in such barbaric ways. 

Keine, Mokou and Yuugi were trying to push the enemy back from the village the last Yukari had seen. But even for them, the onslaught of attacks was slowing them down as these foreign and advanced ways of warfare were not something they'd be used to and it was used against them. Mokou's flames charred the enemy to the ground as visions of humans and youkai being slaughtered throughout the siege whirled in her head. Keine herself was panting whilst she ripped through the hoards of the armies still lurking in the village, Hieda's blood on their uniforms with Yuugi disintegrating everything in her path at the loss of Parsee.

Yukari thought back to the mess that occurred in the Garden Of The Sun, the once blooming sunflowers drizzled with the spray of blood from both human and youkai. The stalks of the sunflowers bent similarly to the bodies that lay beneath them, poor victims that tried to hide from the massacre but were hacked to death by the elite's armies. Fairies were being tortured till their will to die took over their regeneration abilities, choosing death over suffering. What was left of Cirno remained in a once blue puddle that was now tinged with red due to another human falling into it after being shot countless of times. 

Kaguya, Yuuka and Yorihime worked frantically to both rescue the fallen and kill as many of the enemy as they could. None of them were holding back as bursts of such power that Gensokyo had never felt before emitted out from each of the women. All of it feeding off their rage, their tears and their shock at what the land was going through. The two Princesses knew the humans of the Outside World were far more dangerous than any in Gensokyo, as did Yuuka who was filled with darkening rage and unleashing it all. 

Where the Scarlet Devil Mansion once stood with pride, now remained a desolate and destroyed infrastructure. The red brick that the building was composed up of became too red due to the waves of blood that washed on it as the merciless enemy gunned down everything that even walked. Meiling's body lay strewn near Patchouli's, the gatekeeper using her last breath to try and shield the librarian but to no avail. That was where Remilia's blind fury led her to killing a good chunk of the enemy army before her untimely demise that Yukari couldn't stop. 

Flandre and Byakuren battled the forces with everything they had. Their loved ones had been eradicated so callously that the usually peaceful priestess flipped a switch that made her just as formidable as Flandre was. The vampire tore the humans from limb to limb with tears in her eyes as they came at her. None of them escaped the brutality of the Scarlet's unhinged power as she would make them pay. Just knowing of the chaos that had happened so unexpectedly fuelled Byakuren to dodge and shoot and kill without hesitancy. Ichirin, Kyouko, Miko, all of them slain one by one as their bloodied remnants dotted the paths of the Mausoleum. 

Flames and the smell of charred flesh punctuated the air of the Myouren temple. Those that sought shelter in the temple had seen an extremely painful demise at the hands of toxic fumes being dropped and set alight, similar to how the Hakurei Shrine had been totalled. Futo's body was shrivelled up with various fluids leaking out and that was a testament to how prepared the Outside World was to kill everyone in Gensokyo, that even the reincarnated would suffer a gruesome death. The ground surrounding the temple looked like the dead in hell had became jiang shi like Yoshika and melted on the floor, the mixture of congealed blood and organs blending to make a sickening colour. 

Though Shou, Seija and Nue had no choice but to remain there as people were still flocking to the temple to seek help and they had to protect them. Enemies became allies as Shou and Seija fought side by side, raw hatred in both oozing as they'd witnessed the deaths of Nazrin and Shinyoumaru which led them to creating blaze after blaze of attacks whilst Nue made it known exactly why the unknown should be feared. 

Youkai Mountain had been split apart and was crumbling with everyone on it. An array of shells from dozens of tanks continued their fire till the sounds of the explosions were all that could be heard. Hatate was clutching onto Sanae's deceased body as Aya begged her whilst crying to leave, that there was nothing else they could do. Kanako and Suwako had fluttered away into nothingness, unable to comprehend the death of the woman as no amount of faith could restore them from that. Not far from them was Momji's gutted corpse sliding into the shrubbery of the forest to forever remain as she rotted away.

At the crumbling peak, Tenshi, Suika and Toyohime fought against the array of weaponry aiming at them. They batted away each projectile back onto the enemy as ferociously as they could. The sounds of their screams from within the melting tanks was music to their deafened ears, deafened by the dying screams of those they cherished. Keystone after keystone plummeted from the heavens and with the help of Suika's gigantic form and Toyohime's untapped godly powers, all three were able to completely wipe the assailants from the map. However, it was too late as there was nothing left of their own to save anymore. 

As for the Forest Of Magic, there was no longer a forest at all. Sole stumps, broken bark that held the bodies of those that hid up the trees sliding down, species of all sorts killed to extinction; that was what remained of the beautiful and mysterious forest. The three homes that resided within the isolated landscape were bombed to pieces, Marisa unable to escape due to the abrupt attack that nobody was prepared for. Her body was trapped beneath her home, her hat and mini hakkero destroyed without any hope of salvaging, just like her corpse. Narumi was nowhere to be seen as her home was in a similar state. For Alice's home, that too was gone but the magician had managed to get out alive though inside, she was as dead as could be once she spotted both Marisa's body and Patchouli's body near the mansion. 

Shinki, Alice and Elly flew around the airspace whilst trying to take out the jets that were zooming to and fro with more bombs. Nothing could conceal Alice's abilities now as her mother watched the grief consume her daughter when her grimoire opened in an attack she never thought Alice would need to use. Shinki couldn't blame her as Makai hadn't escaped and was sought out by the armies, a blitz of heavy shelling ruining and killing all in her land. Yumeko suffered a tragic death just as she managed to help her and Elly escape, sacrificing herself to make sure they got to live, got to reach Alice and stop the nightmare that was occurring. 

Not even the Netherworld would escape the trauma that was being enforced onto the land below them. Maybe ghost couldn't die but that didn't mean they could not be disturbed so that they could never rest in peace. A large variety of jets and fighter planes passed the small barrier opening and let loose everything they could to disrupt the calmness that resided their. Phantoms, ghosts, spirits; all were running around whilst waiting and walking aimlessly on all direction. Not even Eiki and Komachi knew what to do as the level of dead trying to cross was overbearing as more and more individuals died. Yuyuko remained motionless in Hakugyokurou's gardens that were smoked with all sorts of chemicals, a dead Youmu in her arms. She sat there, just silently crying and taking in the fact that her guard no longer had presence anywhere. That and feeling Yukari's life deplete made the Princess completely despondent. There was no point in moving as she wouldn't mind dying a hundred times over now since Youmu was dead and Yukari was close to it. 

The missiles and mortars that continued to bombard past the Netherworld's barrier ravaged everything in sight as 

Utsuho, Letty and Satori tried to intercept it. The hell raven knew she could obliterate them all with a few of her attacks but she would take Gensokyo down with her, Satori had made sure that she knew the risks and Utsuho couldn't bring herself to do it. So deflecting each round of ammunition with Satori's foresight abilities and Letty's freezing methods of attack was the only way about it.  

 

Not one of the places in Hell, Senkai, The Bamboo Forest Of The Lost or any other location within and surrounding Gensokyo went unscathed. 

Death, despair & destruction lingered everywhere. 

Yukari had seen or felt them all. 

Every scene that had occurred since the barrier was impaled by disbelief and firepower ran through Yukari's mind and Eirin pressed her up against her chest, begging the blonde to stay awake as she delved further into the afterlife. She was crying, that much Yukari could tell as life and death flickered between her mind. The feeling of several drops caressing her bare chest where her clothing had been burnt away brought her back slowly as her hand tentatively went into Eirin's hair. 

She had to stay awake, enough to warn Eirin and the rest away again. She needed them to survive this bloodshed and make it known of Gensokyo's cruel demise at the hands of war mongering humans. 

There _had_ to be survivors. 

"Please go, Eirin" she managed to breath into Eirin's ear as she held on with as much force as she could, "You need to get out of here. It..it will get worse". 

"I'm not leaving you!" the lunarian whispered with relief at Yukari clinging onto her, "We are all going to get through this, okay?". 

Eirin wanted to believe that so desperately as she cried and held Yukari as tightly as possible. She needed to believe that in order for there to be an end to this. Without Yukari, there would be no aftermath both in terms of losing Gensokyo and losing her lover so Yukari had to make, "You have to stay by my side". 

"D-do you trust me?". 

The youkai was shivering and Eirin felt her body slowly getting colder and colder. 

"What kind of question is that?" she scoffed with a smile and kissed Yukari's hair, her tears streaming down now, "I mean it isn't smart but I trust you with everything that I am". 

Yukari managed a weak smile, the feeling of her lover wrapped around her making the pain seem numb. She moved her head up so that she could look at the lunarian when she spoke up. She needed to express how serious she was about Eirin leaving the land with whoever could leave. As much as it killed her to never see the woman again, Yukari knew she could rest easy knowing that at least she kept Eirin safe. 

"Then listen to me, Eirin. I love you and I don't want to leave you but..you need to get to somewhere safe. Take..take as many survivors and get past the other side of the barrier" she instructed and coughed up more blood as Eirin held her tighter and refusing to leave. 

She raised one hand and opened a small gap that was wide enough for them both to see into. Her weakened and near death state wouldn't allow her to create gaps any bigger than that or else should would have covered the entire building with one to move it to safety. 

Eirin could see that that particular area was well hidden and untouched by the enemy. 

"I'm taking you with me if that is the case". 

"No..no. I will only slow you down" Yukari rebuked and clinched Eirin's lab coat in her shaking hands, "There isn't much time so you need start making your way there now". 

"Yukari..".

"Don't! You need to head there now!" she pleaded as her violet eyes lost the last of its remaining vibrancy, "Eirin..".

A deafening whistle cut through the air that brought silence everywhere as Yukari's wet eyes widened in horror, unable to scream for Eirin and the rest to get out of there. 

"Not now, no please.. " she muttered as a new, unnerving sound made her skin crawl. 

"Yukari!" Eirin breathed out when the blonde froze in her arms, her eyes unmoving and lips parting like she was struggling to say something. 

Reisen and Tojiko could do nothing but watch as they felt the sudden onslaught of a new round of profound fear ricochet throughout the building. 

Eirin gently shook her but stopped when a new addition of vocal waves came through from near them. Her strained blue eyes looked around the room and landed on the far end. 

A soft voice hummed inside the makeshift hospital that was both beautiful yet unnerving. It was gentle yet sombre and caused the hairs on the backs of everybody's neck to stand up. 

All eyes turned to the corner where an injured earth rabbit lay on her side with a worried Medicine & Daiyouse watching over her.

Tewi remained fixated on the hunched figure that appeared shell shocked as she sang the haunting lyrics that sounded familiar. She herself had a sullen expression on her face like all the luck had been drained from her after watching so many of the earth rabbits being decimated. Her tattered pink dress and matted black hair was torn and had streaks of blood all over it along with various colours of fur from holding the dying rabbits in her arms. 

The dying earth rabbit continued to sing . 

 

"Kagome Kagome..". 

_**(Caged bird Caged bird)** _

Her breath was airy as an icy chill surrounded, it matched the way her fragile voice sounded. 

 

"Kago no naka no tori wa". 

_**(The bird in the cage)** _

She kept shuddering between singing, her red eyes bloodshot and unblinking. 

 

"Itsu itsu deyaru.. ". 

_**(When, oh when will it come out)** _

A smile crossed her lips when she sang that, it was sharp like a vampire's and as wide as that of a cat. 

 

"Yoake no ban ni.. ". 

**_(In the night of dawn)_ **

The sentence resonated with her because that was when it all unleashed, monsters far more dangerous than oni and any beast. 

 

"Tsuru to kame ga subetta"

**_(The crane and turtle slipped)_ **

Her big eyes glanced at Tewi as she started to cry, luck and fortune had now ran dry. 

 

"Ushiro no shoumen dare..". 

_**(Who is behind you now)** _

 

"Ushiro no shoumen dare..". 

**_(Who is behind you now)_ **

 

"Ushiro no shoumen dare! ..". 

**_(Who is behind you now!)_ **

She repeated it over and over as the noise outside of the building resumed and death suddenly had a soundtrack. 

 

"No!".

Eirin quickly reached out and held Yukari as panic had taken over but the youkai knew there was nothing they could do now. 

It was too late. 

Her worst fears were confirmed. 

The gap she had opened didn't have to show what was coming behind them from the direction of the barrier. 

She could sense the genocidal powerhouse that sent the machines of ultimate annihilation through on  aircrafts that didn't require pilots. If what they had experienced up until now was devastating enough at the hands of the Outside World, they had felt nothing yet. 

Eirin couldn't get Yukari to speak again as she shook her head side to side and clung onto the lunarian, the vision in her opened gap changing so that Eirin could see what was going to happen. 

The earth rabbit's distressed cries increased with the same intervals of the noise from outside and Eirin could understand why. 

She didn't want to believe what she was seeing as she was well versed with weapons of mass destruction, both regarding Luna and Japan's own history. 

Gensokyo's sky was littered with unmanned jets that had something attached beneath it on a pallet. Every single one had the same brand, size and style of the weapon that was on the pallet. The black exterior of the medium to large boxes that balanced on the frame screamed terror of the highest levels and the lunarian could not believe that the humans had decided to go into the territory of complete annihilation. 

_Nuclear weapons._

So many of them dropping down on Gensokyo as she watched. 

Yukari silently cried as the atmosphere in the room become desolate, confused eyes and whispers of, _'What is happening now?!'_ making its way around the room.

It was too late. 

Eirin understood that now. 

One of the jets had just ejected a pallet that held the nuclear warhead right over the makeshift hospital. 

Immortal or not, even she was going to feel this. 

Her eyes locked onto Yukari's, a string of apologies, emotions and affection being conveyed as speaking felt pointless now. 

The bomb plummeted down and Yukari hugged Eirin harder as everyone else took cover once they realised what was happening but it wouldn't be enough. 

 

 _10 seconds_. 

The land that Gensokyo was founded on would be completely erased. 

_9 seconds._

Everything would be disintegrated instantaneously in the impact zone, no trace of life even having a chance of surviving. 

_8 seconds._

The devastation would continue even after the flames of toxicity engulfed the land. 

_7 seconds._

Till death consumed all. 

_6 seconds._

Till living would cease. 

 _5 seconds._  

Gensokyo would be a mere memory, a victim of the cruelty of humankind. 

_4 seconds._

Of being in each other's arms. 

_3 seconds._

Of Yukari feeling Eirin breath for one last time. 

_2 seconds._

Of Eirin having Yukari by her side. 

_1 second._

 

Silence. 

 

"Eirin!". 

Yukari woke up with a start from the futon, her heartbeat rocketing as sweat covered her body. The blonde was breathing so heavily that she could see the air exhale into the room. Her shivering hands landed on her knees and then her stomach as recounts of her nightmare started to emerge. 

"Nightmare..".

Was that what it was?

Looking outside of the window, Yukari could see daylight, the sun just having had broken through the skyline. 

The youkai was still panicked and disturbed by what she had envisioned that she felt her skin tingle at the sheer detail in it. Running a hand down her face and sighing out, something felt out of place for her and she glanced to the side of the futon as adrenaline spiked through her veins. 

In her nightgown, she jumped up and slid open the door of the bedroom, barely being able to catch her breath. Yukari didn't care, she had to make sure this was real, she had to make sure that she was there. Her blonde locks weaved through the air as she picked up speed, scanning her eyes to see anyone at all but it was so quiet that she felt suffocated. 

"Please..don't tell me..".

Gasping, she reached her destination and practically ripped the sliding door that led into the kitchen off till she saw a figure turn around at the counter and give her a smile. 

A smile that faded quickly when Eirin saw the state Yukari was in and reached out for her, leaving the tea she was brewing for them on the counter. 

"Yukari? What's wrong?". 

Yukari crumbled into Eirin's arms and let out a sob as she buried her face into her chest and held on. 

The lunarian was real, alive and there. 

She felt warm against Yukari's bare skin, Eirin's robe sliding across her exposed back when she held her tight and ushered words of soothing and comfort. Just to hear the lunarian's tender and firm voice felt like she was breathing oxygen into her lungs, just like in the nightmare. 

Yukari stopped shaking and bathed in Eirin's warmth and arms, allowing the woman to fully calm her down and make it be known that she was safe, that she was right there with her; that it was okay. For a split second, the youkai thought she was dreaming again when Eirin kissed her hair and ran her fingers through it repeatedly whilst saying her name gently. 

But she didn't have to worry about it coming to an apocalyptic end when she looked up into her lover's concerned blue eyes and placed a hand on her face. 

Eirin held her gaze and continued to whisper words of comfort against Yukari's heated skin that had cooled a little. 

At least, not today. 

 

 


End file.
